Raffaella A. Del Sarto, PhD
About me
2024- Joint Chair in Mediterranean Studies, Department of Political and Social Sciences / Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute
2015-2024: Associate Professor of Middle East Studies, SAIS Europe - The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies
2021-2023: Inaugural Academic Director of the Master of Arts in International Affairs (MAIA) program at SAIS Europe
2019: Italian habilitation at the level of Full Professor of Political Science
2019-2020: Robert Schuman Distinguished Fellow, European University Institute
2011-2017: Part-time professor - European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre
2011-2017: European Research Council (ERC) grant holder - BORDERLANDS project
2014: Italian habilitation at the level of Associate Professor of Political Science
2007-2011: Pears Fellow in Israel and Mediterranean Studies, St Antony's College, Oxford University
2005-2007: Marie Curie Fellow, European University Institute
2004-2005: Jean Monnet Fellow, European University Insitute
2003: PhD in International Relations (summa cum laude) - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Interests & expertise
Geographical focus:
The politics and international relations of the Mediterranean Middle East
Europe's relations with North Africa and the Middle East
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Europe's relations with Israel and the Palestinians
Israeli politics and external relations
Thematic focus:
The nexus between domestic politics and foreign policy
Regional order(s)
Borders, power and interdependence
Languages
Fluent:
English
French
German
Hebrew
Italian
... and:
Some Arabic (intermediate)
Some Spanish (reading and comprehension)
New publications
2024. ‘Regionalism and Alliances in the Middle East, 2011-2021: From a “Flash in the Pan” of Regional Cooperation to Liquid Alliances’, Geopolitics, published online: 5 January (with Eduard Soler i Lecha)
2023. 'A Region in Transition: The Fluid Nature of Middle East Politics', in The Middle East’s Fragile Reset: Actors, Battlegrounds, and (Dis)Order, ed. Galip Dalay and Tarik M. Yousef, pp. 8-15, Middle East Council on Global Affairs.
2023. 'Oslo: Three Decades Later', Israel Studies Review 38(2): 1-11 (with Menachem Klein).
2023. ed. Oslo: Three Decades Later, guest editor of the special issue of the Israel Studies Review 38/2 (with Menachem Klein).
2023. 'Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East', in Louise Fawcett (ed.), International Relations of the Middle East, 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 361-382.
Latest books
2021. Borderlands: Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Also in OPEN ACCCESS (downloadable)
2017. Israel under Siege: The Politics of Insecurity and the Rise of the Israeli Neo-Revisionist Right, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
Recent academic publications (books and articles)
2024. ‘Regionalism and Alliances in the Middle East, 2011-2021: From a “Flash in the Pan” of Regional Cooperation to Liquid Alliances, Geopolitics, DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2023.2268542 (with Eduard Soler i Lecha)
2023. 'Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East', in Louise Fawcett (ed.), International Relations of the Middle East, 6th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2023. 'Oslo: Three Decades Later', Israel Studies Review 38(2): 1-11 (with Menachem Klein).
2021. Borderlands: Europe and the Mediterranean Middle East, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2021. ‘Sectarian Securitization in the Middle East and the Case of Israel’, International Affairs 97(3): 759-778, doi: 10.1093/ia/iiab011
2020, eds. Resisting Europe: Practices of Contestation in the Mediterranean Middle East, Ann Arbor: Michigan University Press (with Simone Tholens)
2019. ‘Stuck in the Logic of Oslo: Europe and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’, The Middle East Journal 73(3): 376-396.
2017. Israel under Siege: The Politics of Insecurity and the Rise of the Israeli Neo-Revisionist Right, Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.
2017. ‘Contentious Borders in the Middle East and North Africa: Context and Concepts’, International Affairs 93(4): 767-787.
2017 (ed.). ‘Contentious Borders: The Middle East and North Africa post-2011’, special issue of International Affairs 93(4), co-edited with Louise Fawcett and Asli S. Okyay, abstracts at https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iix140
2016. ‘Normative Empire Europe: The European Union, Its Borderlands, and the “Arab Spring”’, Journal of Common Market Studies 54(2): 215-232.
2015 (ed.). Fragmented Borders, Interdependence and External Relations: The Israel-Palestine-European Union Triangle, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Books:
Recent essays, opinion pieces, policy reports & working papers
2023. ‘A Region in Transition: The Fluid Nature of Middle East Politics’, in The Middle East’s Fragile Reset: Actors, Battlegrounds, and (Dis)Order, ed. Galip Dalay and Tarik M. Yousef, pp. 8-15, Middle East Council on Global Affairs.
2022. He is back: Netanyahu and the Legitimisation of the Far Right, Australian Outlook, Australian Institute for International Affairs, 15 November.
2020. Olive Branch or Fig Leaf? What Israel’s Normalisation Processes Really Mean for Regional Security (with Charles Lawrie), LSE Middle East Centre blog, 13 November.
______. 'How Europe lost Turkey' (with Soner Cagaptay), Duvar English, 28 October.
2019. 'Trump's Israel-Palestine plan is all smoke and mirrors', The Hill, 21 June.
2019. Insecurity, Identity Politics, and the Restructuring of the Middle East, in Shifting Global Politics and the Middle East, POMEPS Studies 34, Project on Middle East Political Science, March (the complete collection is available here).
2019. Interregnum: The Regional Order in in the Middle East and North Africa after 2011, MENARA Final Report no. 1, February, with Helle Malmvig and Eduard Soler i Lecha.
2018. 'The Mirage of Regionalism in the Middle East and North Africa Post-2011,' MENARA Working Papers No. 18, October, with Eduard Soler i Lecha.
2018. 'New Trends in Identity Politics in the Middle East and North Africa and their Impact on State-Society Relations,' MENARA Working Papers No. 14, October 2018, with Silvia Colombo (lead author), Enrico Campelli, and Francesca Caruso.
2018. ‘The Governance of Migration and Border Controls in the European-North African Context’, MENARA Working Paper No. 13, September, with Jean-Pierre Cassarino.
2017. 'After Mosul, are borders and state sovereignty still an issue in the Middle East?', Oxford University Press blog (OUPblog), with Asli S. Okyay.